How is Billy Joel Still Making Over $30 Million a Year?

William Martin Joel was born on 9th May 1949 in Bronx, New York. He is a famous American singer, pianist as well as songwriter. He was however raised on Long Island, New York. This place often has marked influence on many of his songs. In 1973, his first hit song “Piano Man” was released. He never looked back since then and went to become the 3rd best selling solo and the 6th best selling recording artist of the United States. One of the most selling albums in the history of music in the United States is the compilation album of Billy Joel, the Greatest Hits (both Volume 1 & 2).

From the 1970s to 1990s Billy Joel had the top 40 hits thereby accomplishing overall 33 Top 40 hits in the United States. Amazingly, he wrote all these hit songs and compositions by himself. In his lifetime he got nominated for a total of 23 Grammy Awards so far and won six of them, a glorious achievement. Globally, he has sold over 150 million records to date. This makes Billy as one of the all-time bestselling artists of the world.

The relationship between Billy and the piano started when he was just 4 years old. He showed his talent at an early age and joined the band “The Echoes”, his first when he was only 14 years old. At 18 Billy joined the band “The Hassles”. It was here he got the United Artists’ attention and later on, he formed “Attila”, a heavy metal group. He recorded an album from this group on Epic Records.

Net worth of Billy Joel

Billy Joel has gained a considerable amount of wealth through his 13 studio albums and decades of concerts. He also made several musical tours across the globe over the course of this time period enabling him to make a remarkable amount of personal wealth. According to the Forbes, Joel made $35 million alone between the time frame June 2016 to June 2017. His concert series contributed to most of his earnings along with merchandise and ticket sales. Of course, the total net worth of Billy Joel is much more than the above figure. In 2010 his net wealth estimation as per Forbes was $160 million which must be less than what it actually is. Joel himself agreed that in his biography in 2014 written by Fred Schreuers.

Apart from a music tycoon Billy Joel is also the proud owner of many multi-million dollar houses in Florida and New York. He has a keen interest in acquiring yachts, a passion he developed from his upbringing in Long Island.

Billy Joel received several awards and accolades. In 1992 he received the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1999 he got the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. He also received the Johnny Mercer Award in the 2001 edition of Songwriters Hall of Fame. He bagged the Kennedy Center Honors in 2013. This is the highest honor of the United States for influencing the American culture through the arts. Although he still goes for tours and plays songs he stopped releasing new songs after 1993 (he wrote two songs in 2007).